


Newton's Cradle

by DKGwrites



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, almost...maybe...kinda...Supercorp
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-29
Updated: 2017-08-29
Packaged: 2018-12-21 13:32:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,435
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11945286
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DKGwrites/pseuds/DKGwrites
Summary: After a brutal fight, Supergirl finds most everyone at the DEO has gone to deal with alien cleanup leaving her to deal with her personal fallout alone.  Flying home she discovers a light on at L-Corp and decides to check on the elusive CEO there.  A brief discussion turns into a night of pizza and introspection.





	Newton's Cradle

**Author's Note:**

> This is for my good friend, Ront in response to a prompt. I hope it came out all right. I hope you're feeling well, my friend. Know that I'm thinking of you across the miles. Never hesitate to reach out if you need a friendly ear. Internet hugs. - D.K.G.

Jess sat at her desk finishing up a memo Miss Luthor had asked be ready by noon on Monday for distribution to one of the Research and Development sections.  Having worked for Lena Luthor this long, Jess knew that exceeding expectations was what the woman did herself.  So, Jess did no less.  Checking the time on her computer, Jess saw it was 7:30 on a Friday night.  With twelve hours of work behind her, and a full weekend in front of her, she stood and stretched deciding she’d had enough of L-Corp for this week.  She’s knocked on the door to Miss Luthor’s office and waited for a response before entering.

“Come in,” Lena replied.

“Miss Luthor?  I’m going to head home for the night unless you need me for anything else,” Jess informed her employer who hadn’t looked her way yet.  “I finished up that memo and emailed it to you for approval.”

“Hmmm?  Fine,” Lena said, eyes fixed on the TV screen on the opposite wall, her teeth worrying on the pad of one of her thumbs.  Lena made a vague gesture with her other hand; a pen gripped firmly in her fingers.  “Have a nice…weekend.”

Jess looked at the screen to see what had Miss Luthor transfixed.  On it, Supergirl was doing battle with a group of aliens.  They were humanoid but clearly not human.  Their skin looked crystalline and jagged not unlike rock candy but definitely harder.  They were making their way through downtown, and the hero was doing her best to slow them at least down while protecting the civilians that were attempting to escape their path of destruction.  Jess went from watching the screen to watching her employer again.  She noticed the way Miss Luthor’s eyes would tighten every time Supergirl took a particularly bad hit, the way the CEO’s teeth fretted at her thumb and finger’s squeezed her pen a bit tighter.

“She’ll be fine.”

Lena startled as if having forgotten Jess was there as she turned to her assistant.  “Excuse me?”

“Supergirl she’ll be fine,” Jess assured the CEO.  “You look worried, so I just wanted to, you know…she’ll be fine.”

“Oh, I’m not worried.  I’m just…” Lena waved her empty hand around a bit aimlessly.  “I’m just a concerned citizen, that’s all.”

“Oh, well then you look concerned, so I just wanted to say that she’ll be fine,” Jess repeated.

“Of course she will,” Lena said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.  “I thought you were going home or going out and doing whatever it is people do when they aren’t at work.”

“You mean relax, have fun?” Jess asked with a smirk.

“Working for me isn’t fun?”

“Of course it is,” Jess agreed, trying to wipe the smirk off her face.  “I mean, this is practically charity work.  I can’t believe you’re even paying me to be here.”

Narrowing her eyes, Lena placed her forearms on the desk and leaned forward as she leveled an intimidating glare at her assistant and replied, “I’ll remember that when it comes time to do your review.  When is that again?”

“Well…I…” Jess gulped.

“Oh, go have fun,” Lena replied, turning her attention back to the TV and freeing her assistant from her version of humor.  “See you Monday morning.”

“Bright and early,” Jess agreed.  “I hope you have a nice weekend, Miss Luthor.  You have some fun too.”

Lena waved dismissively over her shoulder, her attention still on the screen.  Suddenly, she raised her hand and said, “Jess, wait.”

Out of the room and the door half- closed behind her, Jess cursed silently to herself at her foiled escape then reentered the room.  “Yes, Miss Luthor?”

“You said you finished that memo?” Lena asked, still staring at the TV.

“Yes, Miss Luthor.  Would you like to review it now?”

“No,” Lena replied, then sat with her back to her assistant, her attention on the screen.

Jess waited but said nothing.  She watched tension occasionally appear on her employer’s shoulders in time with something that was happening on the television.  Still, Lena didn’t speak, and Jess didn’t try to elicit a word from the CEO.  She’d worked for Miss Luthor long enough to know this quirk.  Her boss was a genius, and right now Miss Luthor was working something out.  As initially frustrating as this process had been for Jess, now she just used her patience and knew it would come in time and that time would be—

“Jess, I need some schematic papers.”

Jess nodded.  “Which ones?”

Turning, Lena looked at her assistant.  “Blank.”

“Blank?”

Lena nodded.

“You want blank schematic papers because…you’re starting on a new project?”

A smile ghosting her lips, Lena nodded again.

“Miss Luthor, it’s 7:30 on a Friday night,” Jess informed her employer.

“Good,” Lena said turning back to the TV.  “That means I shouldn’t have many interruptions this weekend.”

Crossing her arms, Jess said, “Fine, I’ll get you the paper and some drafting material before I leave.  I’ll get you some cats too.”

Slowly turning to meet Jess’s gaze, Lena’s brows furrowed.  “…what?”

“Miss Luthor, if you’re going to spend your Friday nights alone starting new projects for R&D, you’ll need cats because that’s who you’ll be spending the rest of your life with.”

Narrowing her eyes at her assistant, Lena replied, “I’ll remember that for your next review too.  Just do as I ask.”

“Yes, Miss Luthor,” Jess said turning on her heel as she swept out of the room.  Turning she looked back and asked, “Oh, did you eat dinner yet?”

The CEO just made a vague gesture in her assistant’s direction, once again chewing at the pad of her thumb as she stared at the television.

Sighing, Jess left the room and closed the door behind her.  “That woman, I swear.  She is going to keel over from exhaustion one day.  Maybe she shouldn’t have cats.  She won’t feed them or herself.  She’ll pass out, and they’ll eat her.”  Shuddering, she went off to gather the requested items.

 

<><> 

 

Supergirl lay under the sunlamps in the DEO just before 2:00 AM.  She imagined this was what the weight bag felt like at the gym.  Though nothing was bleeding anymore or broken…anymore, she was tender and exhausted.  One of those aliens would have been a good workout.  Three was a punishment.  They were immune to both her heat vision and cold breath and had woken up underneath downtown.  They were slow moving, which was a blessing and a curse.  Should couldn’t get them out of a populated area easily, but at least she was faster than the trio.  It was a long fight of wearing them down and taking a beating doing it.  When one fell, she wanted to rejoice, but she still had two left to fight.  Her muscles felt like jelly by the end of the fight, and when the last one dropped she was seconds after him.  Her adrenaline didn’t keep her up long once the fight was over.

Hungry, bored, antsy, and realizing the sunlamps weren’t going to restore her energy or heal her troubled mind, Supergirl pushed them out of the way and sat up.  She was used to her people being here when she woke up, not just the DEO, but her people.  Usually, there would be Alex, Winn, maybe even J’onn hovering nearby, sometimes Vasquez, but none of them were in sight.  She used her x-ray vision to scan the area and listened, and there were a few agents, but none with whom she was overly close.

Walking to the door, she stopped the first agent who came down the hallway and asked, “Excuse me, Agent, but where is everyone?”

“Supergirl.” The agent smiled.  “Good to see you up and about.  Well, we’ve got a skeleton crew staffing here right now.  Those aliens came out of an underground tunnel.  It’s fairly vast, and we’re not sure what sort of technology might be under there.  Most of the agency went down there to check things out.”

“Without me?” Supergirl sighed heavily.  “What if there are more of those guys?  They need backup.”

As she tried to walk past him, the agent stepped in the way.  “Ma’am, Agent Danvers was very…uh explicit with her directions.  When you woke up, you were off duty.  You were to go home and rest.  That’s a direct order.”

Arms crossed, Supergirl replied, “Alex is not the boss of me.”

The agent shrugged.  “Well, she is the boss of me.  Could you go home…please?”

“What if they need back up?”

“Director J’onzz is with them.  Also, as tough as those aliens were, they’re slow.  Our people can out maneuver them easily, right?”

Supergirl nodded.  “Fine.  I still do feel like…lousy.  I’ll go rest, but have them call me if they run into anything and need backup.”

“Thank you.”

“No problem.  Have a good night…um…You’re new.  I don’t actually know your name.”

“Oh, it’s Ront, Ma’am.”

“Don’t Ma’am me.  Alex can be a ma’am, but I’m just Supergirl.”  She stuck out her hand, shaking hands with the agent.  “Well, it was nice meeting you, Agent Ront.  I’ll be seeing you around.”

“You too, Supergirl.” Agent Ront watched Supergirl leave, smiling and said, “I just met Supergirl.  Best.  Job.  Ever.”

Supergirl left the DEO with the intention of heading back toward her apartment.  As tired as she was, she was also restless.  The fight had been harrowing, and she really wished she could have spoken to one of her people about it.  Anytime she felt the possibility of mortality, it stirred up feelings deep inside, feelings of Krypton, of the weight of billions of deaths that she carried on her shoulders every day.  She flew by Maggie’s just curious if the detective was at home, but it was dark inside, and there was no heartbeat in the apartment.  Most likely Maggie was out working cleanup from the fight and dealing with traffic and civilian injuries.  Figuring she was going to have just to go back to her place and find some way to deal with this on her own, Supergirl flew back through downtown on the way home when she saw a light on in a familiar office of one of the highest buildings in National City.  Concerned, she flew over there right away.

Lena sat on the floor of her office, jacket long ago abandoned and the top three buttons of her white blouse undone.  Her back was to the cityscape, and large sheets of paper were rolled out across the coffee table.  Her hair was held up in a messy bun with a pencil; another clutched between her teeth while she did some computations on her calculator and leaned forward, updating her diagram.  Behind her hovered a superhero, head tilted to the side and watching with curiosity.  Touching down on the balcony, Supergirl walked to the door and knocked, smiling awkwardly and waving when Lena spun on the floor, hand to her chest.

“Sorry,” Supergirl mouthed.

Lena nodded, removing the coffee cups from the corners of her sheets that weighted them open and rolling them closed.  She dropped her pencil and calculator onto the table before getting up and opening the door to the balcony.

“Supergirl,” Lena said with a smile.  “You look…How are you?”

“The bug.”

“Excuse me?”

Supergirl shrugged.  “You know, sometimes you’re the windshield, sometimes you’re the bug.  I feel like this time; I was the bug.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry.  You do look a little worse for wear.  You look…” Lena raised her hand toward the hero’s face, hovering inches away before she pulled her hand back and let her hand drop again.  “I watched the fight on TV.  That looked dreadful.”

“It was difficult,” Supergirl admitted.  “Usually, I’m able to draw an alien to a less populated area at least.  These guys were so slow.  They woke up in the middle of downtown and were confused and violent.  I wouldn’t be surprised if they’ve been sleeping there for thousands of years and felt violated by what they found when they came above ground.”

Lena laughed.  “I know how I feel first thing in the morning.  Maybe you should have offered them some coffee.”

Slapping the middle of her forehead, Supergirl smiled.  “Okay, next angry alien that shows up in the middle of downtown, you get them.  I think your negotiating technique may be better than mine.”

Smirking, Lena replied, “Well, I am a Luthor you know.”  A silence stretched between them and then Lena stepped back and said, “I’m sorry, did you want to come in?”

“No, it’s fine.  I thought maybe you should go home?”

“Oh, no.  Not yet.  It’s still early.”

“Miss Luthor, it’s 2:00 AM.”

“Really?” Lena walked over to her cellphone picking it up and pushing the button.  “Hmmm…dead.  I must have run the battery down playing music.”  She crossed the room and pressed the spacebar on her laptop, pulling it out of sleep mode.  “Well, will you look at that, 2:13 AM.”

“You didn’t trust me?” Supergirl asked as she took a few cautious steps into the room.

“Well, we do have this whole Super/Luthor dynamic going on.  I mean, one of us must be deceiving the other, right?” She winked, then walked around her desk, heading toward the bar.  “Well, only one thing to do at this point.”

“Head home?” Supergirl suggested.

“Make coffee,” Lena replied, pulling a pod coffee maker out from under the bar and plugging it in.

“Miss Luthor, it’s after 2:00 AM.  Normal people go home well before this time,” Supergirl said as she walked into the office and stood in the middle of the room, her arms crossed.

Lena laughed, filled the coffee maker with water and popped a pod of coffee into it.  “You of all people are lecturing me about normal?  Bring me two mugs from the table, will you?” 

Slapping her arms against her sides, the hero grabbed two of the empty coffee cups from the table and brought them to the CEO.  She held them out but didn’t release them as she asked, “Are you saying I’m not normal?”

“You?” Lena smiled, her gaze roaming all over the other woman’s face before green met blue again.  “No, you’re extraordinary.”  She took the cups from a slightly shocked hero, then turned and asked, “Can I get you some coffee?  You look pretty tired.”

“Caffeine doesn’t affect me.”

“Well, that’s dreadful,” Lena said, sliding a cup into the coffee maker and pressing a button to start the brewing process.  “How about some hot chocolate?”

“Cocoa?  You don’t strike me as a cocoa drinker, Miss Luthor.”

“I’m a woman of surprises, Supergirl.” Her smile growing, she added, “Actually, I bought it for a friend.  She’s definitely a cocoa drinker, but you can try it out first.” She turned, eyeing the hero and seeing hesitation added, “I have mini-marshmallows.”

“Ooooh.  I like marshmallows.”

Lena smirked.  “Why does that not surprise me?”  She stooped to get them from under the bar, then turned, holding the dangling bag from her outstretched hand, pulling it back right before the hero took them.  “Do remember to save a few for your beverage.”

“Just a few,” Supergirl replied, holding her thumb and forefinger about an inch apart.

With a head shake, Lena handed over the bag.  “Supergirl, the woman of great appetites.”

“Well that’s true,” the Kryptonian said, carefully ripping open the bag before pulling out a handful and popping them into her mouth.  “Mmmm.”

As Lena’s coffee finished brewing, she pulled out the mug, refilled the maker, switched pods, put in an empty mug and asked, “Can I get out anything else?”

“Some pizza?” Supergirl mumbled from the couch, her mouth full of marshmallows.

Lena nodded, heading to her desk where she sat and pressed a button on her desk phone to take it off ‘Do Not Disturb’ then asked, “What do you like on your pizza?”

Eyes wide, Supergirl shook her head.  “I was joking.”

“Well, I’m not.  I haven’t had dinner yet, and as you so rightly pointed out, it is after dinner time.  I should eat something.”

“Then go home,” the hero said, pointing to the door.

“I can’t,” the CEO replied.  “This project is going to take me all weekend.  I have to get my designs finished so R&D can get to work on the prototype when they come in Monday.  Even then, it will still be months to develop the prototype.  No, when money is your business, and your business is money, weekends are a luxury you can’t afford.”

“How about sleep and a bed?”

“Luxuries.”  Lena smirked.  “Oh, don’t look so upset.  That couch is incredibly comfortable.  It costs more than most people’s bed, and I have pillows and blankets here as well as changes of clothes.  The shower in my bathroom is fabulous.”

Dropping the half-eaten bag of marshmallows on the table, Supergirl said, “I see you’ve done this before.”

“Once or twice…maybe three or four or…” Lena shrugged.  “Well, you get the idea.”  She lifted the phone from its cradle.  “So, what do you like on your pizza?”

Sighing, Supergirl replied, “Food.  I like food.  Lots of food is my favorite kind of food.”

“I’ll see if they have that on the menu.”  She pressed a button to dial down to security, then looked at the hero.  “I bet you eat a lot, don’t you.”

Supergirl nodded emphatically.

“Henry, yes,” Lena said smiling into the phone as you spoke.  “Would you please order me some take out from that pizza and sub shop that delivers here late at night?  I’d like a garden salad, oil and vinegar dressing on the side, no croutons…yes, that’s right, my usual.”  She paused.  “Actually, there is one other thing.  I’d like some pizza.  Yes, you heard right, pizza.  Get me a large…” Lena held up a finger, then a second, finally a third.

Smiling, Supergirl nodded.

With an eye roll, Lena shook her head in disbelief.  “Make that three large everything pizzas and bottle of soda…orange?”

The hero shrugged and smiled.

“No, I’m quite serious,” Lena said.  “Thank you, Henry.  Just buzz me when it gets here, then come up.  I’ll meet you out by Jess’ desk.”

As Lena hung up, Supergirl laughed.  “What kind of rumor is that going to start?”

Shaking her head, Lena headed to the coffee maker.  “I have no idea.  Now I’ll be the workaholic CEO who has late night pizza binges.”  She turned with a mug in each hand.  “Thank you for that.”

“Just another service I provide.  Hey, let me help you with that.” Suddenly Supergirl was there, a hand wrapped around each mug.

“Oh!  Careful, they’re hot.”

“Bulletproof also equals burn proof.”

“Of course,” Lena said grabbing coasters and following Supergirl to the coffee table.  She laid them out and said, “You managed to save some marshmallows.”

“Not on purpose I assure you,” the hero said tossing one handful in the mug and another in her mouth.  “You distracted me.”

“Well, then I apologize.”  They each sipped their beverages, Lena much more carefully as she studied the hero before asking, “Supergirl, I don’t mean to be invasive, but you look off tonight.  I don’t mean physically, though you do look a bit haggard.  It’s more emotionally.  Usually, you look very upbeat.  Are you all right?”

“Sure.”

“Hmmm.”

“Hmmm?”

Taking another careful sip of her coffee, the CEO placed it on the table and slid back on the couch.  “I don’t expect you came here looking for someone to open up to, and I’m not trying to pry.  I don’t have a lot of friends here in National City.  As a matter of fact, I have exactly one.  I know what it looks like when someone is carrying a burden.  I’ve seen that look in the mirror often enough.  Perhaps there’s someone you should be speaking with, maybe your cousin or some friends?”

Supergirl shook her head.  “Superman wouldn’t understand this, and everyone else is…busy.”

“Oh, well, if this is important I’m sure they’re not too busy.  Do you maybe have a…partner to discuss problems with?”

“Partner?”  After a moment Supergirl said, “Oh, a partner, partner, that kind of partner.  No, dating is kind of difficult when you’re one of the last of your race and…different.  No, I don’t really date much.”

“Ah.”  Lena nodded.  “Been there.  Plenty of humans out there, but that doesn’t make things any easier.  I don’t know if that makes you feel any better or not.  Just because there are others of your race on the planet doesn’t mean any of them will fit.  That is if you have time to try.”

“Well, not working all weekend would be a nice start.”

“Or not spending your Friday nights fighting huge rock monsters that come up in the middle of National City,” Lena countered.

“Touché.” Supergirl laughed.  “We’re quite the pair, aren’t we?”

“Somehow, yes, though an unlikely pair.  Aren’t we supposed to be sworn enemies?”

“Yeah,” Supergirl said slowly.  “Let’s not do that, okay?  I have enough enemies, and I kind of like you.  Maybe we could be pizza and salad buddies instead.”

Picking up her beverage, Lena held it out and suggested, “Coffee and cocoa buddies?”

Carefully clinking their mugs together, Supergirl said, “I’ll drink to that.”

Laughing, Lena took a sip and added, “I’ll drink to just about anything.”

“Haha.  You sound like my…Agent Danvers.”

“You have your own Agent Danvers?”

Nodding rapidly, Supergirl drank more of her cocoa, then grabbed another handful of marshmallows and shoved them into her mouth.

“Well, lucky you.”

Swallowing, Supergirl pointed to the rolled up papers.  “So, what exactly is going to be keeping you here all evening?”

Eyeing the superhero suspiciously, Lena asked, “Is this some form of very elaborate corporate espionage?  If it is, it’s excellent.”

“Phef.  Espionage?  Me?  Come one.”  Supergirl waved a hand at the CEO dismissively.

“I don’t know.  Maxwell Lord has been getting rather clever in his attempts to steal our designs.  This, you, that would be top notch.”

“Max Lord?” Supergirl’s face screwed up in distaste while she shook her head.  “Ugh!  Max Lord is the worst.  I can’t stand him.  You’re not a fan either?”

“Maxwell Lord is a deceitful, underhanded, dishonest, artificer.  He’s a fraud and a charlatan whose two-facedness is only equal to his dissemblance.” Taking a sip from her coffee, Lena smoothed her hair and said, “You’re correct.  I’m not a fan.”

“I guess,” Supergirl replied, popping more marshmallows in her mouth.  “So, I won’t be running off to Lord Industries and talking to your buddy Max.  Care to give me the scoop on your latest weekend project?”

“Well…” Lena considered, her eyes wandering over to the rolled up paper.  “I can only talk about it in a high-level overview as it’s still in development, all right?”

“Sure.”

“Are you familiar with the concept of a Newton’s Cradle?”

Supergirl shook her head.

Standing, Lena motioned the hero to follow her as she walked back to her desk.  “You probably are, but you might not know what they’re called.  Well…” She looked back at the superhero.  “I suppose I shouldn’t make that assumption with aliens.  At any rate.”  Lena began to type while she spoke.  “The basic concept of a Newton’s Cradle is conservation of momentum and energy.  The energy travels directly from one end, through to the far end where it ends in an arc and returns.  Here, I’ll show you.”  Lena opened a document and clicked on a link, the moving image of five balls suspended on metal wires on either side between two upside-down U’s appeared.  She clicked on the little arrow on the bottom left-hand side and first the ball on the right side pulled back and then swung connecting with the closest one, then the one on the left moved out as the energy was transferred through the three in the middle, a clicking noise apparent as each one struck one of the balls in the center.

“Oh, yeah, yeah!” Supergirl said, nodding.  “We had those on Krypton.  They were science toys.  Fun and they made that click noise.  You could do one ball at a time, two, three, or four.  I don’t remember what they were called, but I remember them.”

“Here they’re named after Issac Newton, a 17th-century scientist.”

“I’ve heard of him,” Supergirl said nodding wisely.  “He was not Kryptonian.”

“No, certainly not,” Lena agreed.  “He was about proving gravity, not disproving.  At any rate, the basic concept here is something we’re hoping to…bend.”

“Bend…as oppose to break?”

“Well, breaking the laws of physics isn’t nice, even for a Luthor,” Lena replied with a smirk.  “Here’s an incredibly basic overview of our design.  This is a rough-out.”  She clicked on another link, and it brought up what looked like an incredibly dense spiderweb design.  Clicking on it several more times zoomed in on it until differently sized polygons could be seen between the latticework of stretched out lines.  Some of the polygons had few sides, while a few seemed to be at the center of a massive network and had numerous sides.

Pointing at one of the largest polygons, Supergirl asked, “Exactly how big is that one?”

“I’m not certain as the prototype isn’t built, but the whole thing—”

“No, how many sides,” the hero clarified.

“Oh, sorry.  It’s an icosikaitetragon.”

“You want to try that again for the alien in the room?”

“A 24-gon?”

“Better.  Thank you,” Supergirl replied.  “Okay miss made up word nerd—”

“Actually that word—”

“Eh, eh.”  Supergirl held up her hand.  “Be polite to your guests.  Now, where was I?”

Leaning back in her chair, the CEO quipped her eyebrow and said, “Apparently I’m a made up word nerd.”

“I’m glad we can agree on that.  Now, what exactly does this thing do besides give your resident superhero a headache?”

“I doubt you get headaches,” Lena replied as she shook her head.  “This _thing_ transfers energy outward instead of inward.”

“So it redirects force.”

Smiling, Lena nodded excitedly.  “Well, hypothetically, of course.”

Brow furrowed, Supergirl nodded slowly.  “And the hypothetical uses of this are?”

“Our first thoughts are the automotive industry.  If we can redesign bumpers with these, and then along the car put more energy transfer units, we could make vehicles that lasted longer, with fewer repairs, and less injury to people and loss of human life.  How amazing would that be?”

“Pretty amazing,” Supergirl agreed.  “What happens to the energy in an accident?  It has to go somewhere, right?”

“The first law of thermodynamics,” Lena agreed.  “Energy can neither be created nor destroyed; energy can only be transferred or changed from one form to another.  So, we’re transferring it and storing it.”  Lena typed on her keyboard, bringing up another design.  “You see, each of the polygons will store energy. We might be able to include solar in the design eventually, maybe build it into the shock absorbency system.  This could recharge a car while it’s turned off.”

“An electric car, running on a rechargeable battery, that you charge from the turbulence of the road, and if you’re in an accident it absorbs any damage and turns it into energy?”  When Lena just smirked, Super girl said, “You’re a mad scientist.”

“I am rather, aren’t I,” Lena said, her smile growing.  “Oh, come on.  Where’s your sense of discovery?  What’s the point of science if we’re not going to use it to try and improve the world?  That’s why we’re here isn’t it, to leave this planet a little better than we found it for the next generation?”

“Is that why you’re here?”

“Well, I hope so,” Lena replied.  “Given all of the options I’ve seen, that one seems like the best.”

Smiling, the hero sat down on the desk and crossed her arms.  “I agree.”

“Well then—” Lena’s phone buzzed.  She lifted it, saying, “Thank you, Henry.  I’ll meet you just outside of the elevator.”  She hung up, putting the ‘Do Not Disturb’ function back on.  “Food is here.  I’ll go get it.”

“I’ll give you a hand,” Supergirl said, following the CEO to the door.

Holding a hand out to the hero, Lena said, “Do you really want people knowing you drop in here at all odd hours in the morning?”

“Well, I don’t really.  It’s only the one time.”

“They won’t know that.  Let’s save both our reputations and let me grab it.”  She put her hand on a panel on the side, putting her eyes up against a scanner until it buzzed, then typed in a code.  Then she unlocked the door.

“Fancy security,” Supergirl said.

“Well, I like the extra layer when I’m here alone at night.”

“But you’re not alone.”

Lena looked over her shoulder at the hero before opening the door and stepping through the doorway, closing the door behind her.

Supergirl watched through the closed door as Lena took the food from the security officer.  They spoke briefly, both smiling.  He offered twice to carry it in for her but she refused, and then she watched him get into the elevator and leave.  As soon as the elevator closed, Supergirl had the door open and was in front of Jess’s desk, pizza boxes in hand.

“I said I could carry it,” Lena argued with a heavy sigh.

“I’m just hungry,” Supergirl said, taking the pizza in one hand and the soda in the other, allowing Lena to grab the salad and paper bag off the top as they went back into the office.  “It smells good.”

Lena stopped to relock the door with all levels of security protocols.  “Henry says the pizza is excellent, and he gets takeout from there regularly.  Hold on,” Lena said, moving her rolled up papers to one side of the table when she saw the hero looking for a spot to put down the boxes.

“Thanks.”  Supergirl opened the top of the first pizza box, inhaling deeply and smiling.  “Mmmm.”

“I don’t think I have any plates, but I can—”

“Do I need one?” Supergirl asked sitting on the floor, chewing on two pieces of pizza, one folded over the other, as she leaned over the box.

“Ah…not if you don’t want one,” Lena replied as she slid onto the floor and opened her salad.

Supergirl shrugged, chewing happily and taking another bite.  “I eat so fast my…friend says it’s a shame to waste plates on me.”

“Well, your **friend** likely knows what he or she is talking about,” Lena said, spearing some food with her fork.

“She,” Supergirl said with a grin.  “I have male friends too, but this friend is female.  This friend is my first friend.”

“Oh.  How long have you known this friend?”

“Um…” Chewing, Supergirl took a moment before replying, “Fourteen years.  I met her when I first came to Earth.”

“You look like you had to think about that.”

“Honestly, I wasn’t sure I should tell you that.”

“Because now I know how long ago you came to Earth?” Lena guessed.

Supergirl nodded.

“Well, then thank you.  I won’t share it with anyone.  I don’t know how it would be of any use to me or anyone, but I still won’t tell anyone.  I do appreciate you trusting me though.  I’m sure it can’t be easy, being you, not knowing who to trust.  I expect I must be the last person you would trust because…”  Lena shrugged, looking down and stabbing a cherry tomato and popping it into her mouth.

“You’re not your brother or your mother,” Supergirl replied, grabbing two more slices of pizza and beginning to eat.  “I know other people don’t want to seem to let you forget about them, but I know who you are.  You should too.”

Smiling slightly but still not meeting the hero’s gaze, Lena nodded.

The hero opened and closed her mouth, trying to find the right words to stop the silence that was growing heavy between them.  She took another few bites of her pizza, searching for words that Supergirl, not Kara, could bring forward at this moment.  Finally, she settled on, “The fight today was rough.  Most of the time things are easy for me, but sometimes the fight is hard like this, and I feel…it.”

Her head slowly turning, Lena met Supergirl’s gaze.  “It?”

Nodding the hero replied, “Mortality.  I know that must seem like an odd thing to say.  I mean, everyone has reminders of their mortality, right?  I just don’t feel it most of the time, not since coming here and living under a yellow sun.  When it does happen I can feel it, feel all of them, and it just feels…” She shook her head, eyes drifting off to stare at the skyline through the door to ceiling glass panels.  When she felt a pressure on her arm she looked down to see a pale hand gently lying there.  Her gaze shifted from Lena’s hands to green eyes, soft and filled with surprising sympathy and understanding.

“Krypton.”

Supergirl nodded.  “I lived.  They all died, and I lived, just my cousin and me, but I’m the only one that remembers them.  I’m the only one they sent off to keep the culture of an entire planet alive, and sometimes that’s hard, you know?”

Slowly Lena nodded with deep understanding.  “Sometimes living is very hard.  It’s easier when there are other people around to create a distraction, but when it’s quiet, and you’re alone…” She nodded again.  “Yes, sometimes living is hard.”

Chewing, finishing her pieces of pizza, Supergirl paused before taking another two and asked, “So, what do you do to keep going?”

“Me?” Lena smiled but it was just with her lips, her eyes moving off to the left and then that smile reached them as she looked back at the hero again.  “Why I make mad science, of course.  For good or bad, Luthors leave an impact on this world.”

“Yours is good,” Supergirl said, returning the smile.

“What do you do when it gets hard?” Lena asked, a piece of cucumber on her fork as she pointed at the hero with plastic tines.  “Does massive volumes of pizza get you through it?”

“Well not by itself.  Ice cream helps too,” Supergirl replied before taking a huge bite of the pizza, enjoying the way the CEO’s nose scrunched up as she watched with a combination of horror and fascination.  When her mouth was empty, the hero added, “Usually I talk with my friends.  They help ground me, remind me I’m here for a reason and what’s really important: friends, family, love.  You know?”

“Errr…” Lena shrugged.

“Oh…Miss Luthor, I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Lena replied smiling gently.  “I’m happy for you, that you have people in your life that love you.  You deserve that.”

“So do you.”

“Hmmm.” Lena’s smile was the least sincere one Supergirl had ever seen from the CEO.

Dropping her pizza back into the box, the hero slid closer and placed a hand on the CEO’s shoulder and said, “Hey, you do.  You’re a really good person.  Your family doesn’t deserve you.  You get that, don’t you?”

“Perhaps in this life, we get what we deserve.”

“So I deserved to have my entire world die?” Supergirl countered.

Lena’s breath hitched for just a moment caught in a trap of her own making.  That moment passed quickly as her mind worked and she recovered saying, “Perhaps you deserved to survive and be a representative of your entire species, a living time capsule of a society lost to the great vacuum of space.  Out of all of your kind, perhaps you do deserve to survive.  You’re meant for great things.”

Slowly, Supergirl’s smile grew until it was entirely bright.  She gently squeezed the CEO’s shoulder.  “So are you, Miss Luthor.  Out of all of your family, you’re the one who should survive.  You’re meant for great things and good things too.”

Smiling, Lena chuckled.  “I see what you did there.”

Waggling her eyebrows, Supergirl withdrew to her food, picking up her pizza and saying, “It’s hard to argue with yourself, isn’t it?”

“If anyone can manage it, I can.”

The hero chewed with a smile on her lips.  They sat together for a few quiet moments before Supergirl said, “Man, I got my butt kicked today.”

“Oh, I know.” When Supergirl gave her a somewhat offended look, the CEO pointed to the screen on the far side of the room.  “I did watch it happen.  As you said, you were the bug.”

“Hey, I did all right.  There were three of them, and those guys were harder than diamonds. I can crush diamonds and—” When Lena grasped her chin, Supergirl stopped speaking from the surprise of the contact.

Grabbing a napkin with her other hand, Lena wiped at the hero’s face.  “You’ve got pizza sauce on your face.  For such a regal figure, you can be quite uncouth when you eat.”

“Hey, I’m couth.  I’m as couth as the next superhero.”

“Of course.  Please forgive me,” Lena said ducking her head as she pulled away in an attempt to hide her smile.  “It’s merely my lack of experience with superheroes.  I have a limited amount of data on the subject, namely you.”

Nodding, Supergirl took another bite of pizza, this one quite dainty.  “You are forgiven.”

Lena giggled.

The two fell into an easy silence while Supergirl finished the rest of the pizza in that box, opening the soda and taking several deep swigs directly from the bottle.  She discarded the first box and began on a second.

“Where do you put it all?”

Eyebrows high, Supergirl kept eating and pointed at her stomach.

“Well, it certainly doesn’t look like it.  Perhaps I should take up fighting aliens.  That seems to be quite the workout regimen.”

Placing her elbow on the coffee table, Supergirl grinned and said, “Want to arm wrestle?”

Lena dabbed at her mouth with her napkin, allowing her gaze to explore the bicep of the other woman before she reached out, attempting to squeeze the muscle but finding it entirely unforgiving.  “Good Lord.  Girl of Steel indeed.”

With a slight blush, Supergirl withdrew her arm and looked away.

“I’m sorry.  Did I embarrass you?”

Rubbing at the back of her neck, Supergirl said, “No, I just…Okay, a little I guess.  I really don’t do anything to earn the muscle.  I guess it’s sort of like your mind.  You’re just smart.”

“But you could do nothing with it, and instead you do good.”

Smiling, Supergirl picked up some more pizza.  “See how much we have in common?  We’re like two peas in one of those pod things, except I’m the really big muscular pea, and you’re the super smart pea.”

“I don’t think analogies are your strong suit.  Stick to protecting the innocent and defeating evil.  You’re exceptionally good at that.”

Taking several more gulps of soda, Supergirl put the bottle down and grabbed the last of the pizza from the second box.  She slid to the side, and the slumped over until her head hit Lena’s shoulder.  “Analogies are less tiring.”

Chuckling, Lena combed her fingers through Supergirl’s hair.  “Poor baby.  You need a vacation.  I’ve heard they’re very relaxing.”

“Mmmmm.” At the contact, the hero relaxed further into the touch.

“Feel good?”

“Very,” Supergirl replied, turning her head to allow more access.

“Come here,” Lena said, lifting her arm so she could scratch gently along the hero’s scalp with both hands.

“Great Rao, yes,” Supergirl said, snuggling into the other woman.  “Mmmm.  I’ve got to warn you; I’ll probably get tired of this after two or three hours.”

“Only two or three hours?” Lena tutted.  “Not as much stamina as I’d imagined you’d have.”

There were several heartbeats of silence; then Supergirl lifted her head just enough to make eye contact and asked, “You’ve imagined how much stamina I have?”

Lena snorted slightly before laughing, gently pushing the other woman’s head back into place so she could continue playing along the blonde’s scalp and through her hair.  “All right.  Well played.  I earned that one, didn’t I?”  As Supergirl shoved the last of the pizza into her mouth, the CEO said, “You know, I never thought I’d say this, but I wish my mother were here.”

Mouth still full of pizza, the hero turned and stared at the CEO, chewing and swallowing before she said, “Care to explain that?”

“Oh, that did sound dreadful, didn’t it?  I only meant I’d love to see the look on her face if she walked in and saw us like this.  I’m no more eager to see her than you are.  Believe you me.  Just imagine her walking in, seeing you leaning back against me, you chewing on a slice of pizza while I played with your hair.  I’d smile and wave at her.”  By way of example, Lena smiled brightly and waved just from the fingers with one hand.  “Oh, good evening Mother.  Look who came to visit.  Would you like some pizza?  I’m sure Supergirl would spare you a slice.  We’re all friends here after all.”

After just a second of considering the scenario, Supergirl burst out laughing.  She grabbed her abdomen, twisting and falling backward until her head landed in Lena’s lap.  She lay there for about a half of minute of unbridled laughter before it began to subside into quieter giggles.

“Are you all right?” Lena asked.

Nodding, Supergirl said, “Yes, but now I wish your mother were here.”

That got Supergirl laughing again, and Lena joined in.  Close to a minute, later they had both calmed down.  Supergirl lay in Lena’s lap, the CEO playing with her hair again and both women smiling.

“Do you feel any better?” Lena asked. “You look more relaxed.”

“Pizza and talk about Lillian Luthor, what else could a superhero want?” She reached up laying one hand gently on Lena’s cheek.  “You’re smiling too.  It’s nice.  You should do that more.”

“Well, perhaps you should drop by at two in the morning for pizza more often.”

“I could do that,” the blonde replied.  “Could I skip the part where guys pop out of the ground in the middle of the city and beat me up for several hours?”

“Spoil sport.  What will I watch on TV?”

“The Bachelor?”

“Oh, God!” Lena recoiled. “If I’m forced to watch reality TV you will have another evil Luthor on your hands.”

“Well, we can’t have that.  I suppose I’ll have to keep fighting.  Maybe I could do just one alien at a time?”

“If that’s all you think you can handle.”

“Maybe I’m a one on one kind of hero,” Supergirl responded.

“Ah, monogamy,” Lena said with a smirk.  “Not enough people believe in that nowadays.  I shouldn’t be surprised to hear that you do.”

“And you don’t?”

Lena shrugged.  “I’m not sure it’s in my genes, not the way my…ahem.  Anyway, you have to have one relationship before you can have more than one.  My idea of monogamy is my laptop and me.”

“Well, I hope it works out for you two.  Am I going to get an invitation to the wedding?” Supergirl asked with a grin.

“Oh, I don’t think she’s ready for that kind of a commitment.  I mean I am, but I know for a fact she’s been talking to her ex from the IT department.  I’m not sure those two are done with each other.”

Supergirl laughed again, then closed her eyes and enjoyed a few moments of feeling relaxed.  Opening her eyes she looked at the coffee table, stretching out one arm and finding the pizza box was out of reach.  “Eh.  Eh.”

“What are you doing?”

“Right now I wish I had telekinesis instead of super strength.  I want more pizza, but I’m much too comfy to get up. Eh.” She lay on her back on Lena’s lap, arms flailing slightly.

“Let me,” Lena said leaning over the hero and grabbing the box, depositing it onto the superhero’s stomach.  As she looked down and was met with widened eyes and a look of shock, she asked, “What’s wrong?”

“Well…I…um…you were just…there.”

“There?  What do you mean I was there?”

“You were…there,” Supergirl repeated, this time placing both her hands, palm forward, in front of her own face.

Head tilted to the side, Lena took a moment to digest that statement before looking down at herself where her own eyes widened.  “Oh, my.  I’m so sorry.” Buttoning up her lowest open button, she said, “I wasn’t exactly expecting company.  That’s a lot of boobs.”

“Heh, heh.  Yeah.  I’m mean it’s great.  They’re great.  You’re…you’re great.  It’s not a problem, but it just surprised me, and then you were just…”

“There,” Lena finished for the hero.  “I hope I didn’t put you off your appetite.”

“Please,” Supergirl said flipping open the box and taking out two pieces of pizza.  “It will take a lot more than boobs to put me off my food even when they’re…you know.”  Supergirl grinned, chomping down on her food.

Saying nothing, Lena smirked as she combed her fingers through the hero’s hair.  From time to time she took a bite of her salad.  Mainly she just enjoyed watching the hero relax, enjoyed feeling herself relax at the contact.  In short order, Supergirl had finished off three pizzas and a two-liter bottle of soda and was half-asleep in Lena’s lap.  Lena thought the Girl of Steel might fall asleep here, and if she did, the CEO had no interest in stopping her.  For all Supergirl did for the citizens of National City, it seemed like little to give in return.

Eyes closed and breathing quiet, Supergirl’s voice broke through several minutes of silence but was still very quiet.  “Sometimes giving up doesn’t seem like such a bad idea.”  After a few seconds, when there was no response, the hero rolled over so that she was facing the CEO to find the other woman smiling gently down at her.

“But you don’t,” Lena said, her eyes and voice soft in the quiet room.

“I haven’t,” Supergirl said, noting the difference.  “Are you ever…?”

“Tempted?”

Supergirl’s lips twitched in acknowledgment of agreement.  “When your mother and brother are both trying to kill you, does it just ever seem easier to give up?”

“Easier?  Oh, always,” Lena said with several nods.  “Easy has never been my way no matter what the tabloids tell you.  No, I have been tempted, but as much as I’d like to stop fighting, I don’t want to let them win.  That’s the beauty of having enemies that are entirely reprehensible.”

“Like Max Lord.”

“An excellent example,” Lena agreed.

“So you keep fighting.  And you’re not afraid of dying?” Supergirl asked.

“Of dying?  No, that frightens me.  I don’t know about Kryptonians, but dying frightens humans.  The entire process seems unpleasant, and we’re built with an innate self-defense mechanism made to stave it off.  Death though, sometimes death doesn’t seem like the worst idea in the world.  I think some days I’d be fine with it if I could take those bastards with me.”  Lena gave a small, humorous laugh.

Reaching up, Supergirl pulled the pencil from Lena’s hair and tossed it on the table behind her.  She ran her fingers through the CEO’s tresses, watching the raven strands flowing over her fingers.  Not meeting the other woman’s eyes, she continued to play with Lena’s hair, pulling it down over one shoulder as she said, “That would be a shame.  I think the world is a better place with you in it.”

Studying the woman who studied her, Lena said, “Well, I’ll make you a deal then.  I’ll stick around if you do.”

“Pinky swear?” Supergirl said, holding out her pinky with a slight curve to the digit.

“I didn’t know they did that on Krypton.”

“We’re not on Krypton.”

Smiling, Lena hooked her pinky around Supergirl’s, pulling back until they separated and said, “Pinky swear.”

“You know that’s a binding contract.  I can sue you if you break that.”  Supergirl grinned.

“You’ll be suing my estate because I’ll be dead.  Knock yourself out,” Lena replied with an eye roll.

“Mean.”  With a pout, the hero snuggled into the CEO’s lap. 

Lena began to play with the hero’s hair again, lightly scratching along the blonde’s scalp.  Again a silence stretched through the room until it was just quiet breathing, fingers stroking through blonde hair, and the sound of two hearts beating if you were Kryptonian and could hear such things.

Eventually, Supergirl informed the CEO, “I am so going to fall asleep on your lap.”

“That’s fine.”

“I’m not kidding,” the hero said a bit sleepily.

“Neither am I.”

After a few moments, Supergirl opened one eye and looked up at Lena.  “This can’t be comfortable for you.”

“You’d be surprised,” Lena replied with a gentle smile.  “You can stay as long as you like.  You don’t have to leave.”

Supergirl seemed to consider that.  “Are you sure?  I don’t want to be an inconvenience.”

“Inconvenience?  You’ve saved my life two handfuls of times now.  I hardly think the term inconvenience can be used here.”

“Yes, but look what you’ve done with that life.  You’ve stopped crimes, saved all alien life here, built hospitals, built woman’s shelters, how close are you to curing cancer?”

“That’s proprietary information,” Lena mumbled.

Grinning, Supergirl said, “Miss Luthor, I’ve helped a lot of people, saved a lot of lives, but very few have come close to giving back as much to this world as you have.  I could save your life a million times, and I still don’t think it will equal all the good you’re going to do.”

“Huh.” Nodding once, Lena replied, “Well, it’s settled then.  We won’t be using the word inconvenience in this office.”

“That’s what you got from what I just said?”

Patting Supergirl on the back, Lena tried to stand as she said, “Come on, up with you now.”

“But I’m comfy,” the hero whined.

“Oh, don’t be such a baby.  Come on, get up.”

“Fine,” the hero grumbled.  “What happened to me not being an inconvenience?”

Rising a bit stiffly, Lena went to one of the walls.  She pushed on a section, and it popped out, releasing a drawer that had been flush with the wall.  She pulled out two pillows and a red blanket, closed the drawer, then brought things back to the couch laying them out.

“Here.  I think you’ll find the couch much more comfortable than the floor,” the CEO said as she made up the couch like a makeshift bed.

“I don’t know.  Your carpeting is pretty plush, and your lap makes a really nice…yawn…pillow,” Supergirl said with a grin.

Slapping one of the pillows into the hero’s midsection, Lena said, “So do pillows.  There, now lie down.  Do you need something into which to change?  I have shorts and t-shirts I use for sleeping.  You’re welcome to borrow something.”

“It’s fine.  I’ll just take off my boots and cape. My uniform is comfortable,” the hero said, unfastening her cape.  “Anyway, could you imagine me not wearing this?”  When she looked up, Lena was smirking at her.  “Okay, I walked into that one, didn’t I?”

“You practically flew into it.” Lena took the hero’s cape, hanging it over the end of the couch, then moved the blonde’s boots down to the end also.  She tucked the other woman in and sat down on the side of the couch, asking, “There now, isn’t that comfortable?”

“It’s not bad,” Supergirl admitted, smiling as Lena played with her hair again.

“Do you need anything else?”

“Will you stay?”

“I’m not going anywhere,” Lena replied, gesturing over at the papers curled up on the coffee table.  “I’ve got a weekends worth of work ahead of me.  I’ll be right here.”

“No, I mean, could you stay here with me for a little bit?  Maybe just until I fall asleep, could you maybe just stay here with me?”  Supergirl pulled up one corner of the blanket, her eyes hopeful.

“Oh, you mean stay…” Eyebrows high, Lena gestured toward the couch with her chin.

“Not if you don’t want to,” Supergirl said trying to suppress a yawn and watching as Lena looked away doing the same.  “I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.  I just…I don’t want to be alone, and it’s felt really nice with you here tonight, you know?”

A slow smile growing, Lena said, “I do.  Okay, just until you fall asleep.  You don’t snore, do you?”

“Kryptonian’s don’t snore.  That’s a human thing,” the blonde replied, trying to keep the grin off her face.

Slipping under the blanket, Lena looked Supergirl dead in the eyes and said, “Well now I want to get a look at your sinuses.”

“Is that mad scientist foreplay?”

Lena nodded.  “Mad scientist first base.”  As the blonde laughed, Lena rolled over, so her back was to Supergirl’s front.  She had her arm over the blanket and was pleasantly surprised when another arm wrapped around her.

“Is this all right?”

“Very much so.”  She felt fingers move through her hair, pulling it off to the side, and then an arm slid under her neck and along her front.  She lifted her lower arm, making room for the arm that slid along her body.  “Is your arm going to fall asleep?”

“Nah.  I can stop bullets.  You’re weightless to me,” Supergirl said, pulling the human in a bit tighter though carefully so.

“Weightless, hmmm, I could get used to that.”

“Me too,” Supergirl agreed.

“Goodnight, Supergirl.  I’ll try not to wake you when I get up.”

“Okay.  Goodnight…Lena.”

Smiling, Lena snuggled up against the hero, listening to the other woman’s slowing breathing as the Kryptonian began to drift off to sleep.

 

<><> 

 

“It’s an emergency, National Security, Matter of Life and Death, whatever you need to put down to keep your job is fine,” Alex said as she walked alongside Jess.  “I promise I won’t even go into the office unless there’s a real and present danger.  I’ll just stand in the doorway, okay?”

“Without a warrant, you better not walk past this doorway,” Jess replied.  “If Miss Luthor had ever left the building last night, if she were answering her phone, there’s no way I’d let you in here.  She locked out security using the override last night.  This could just be her working late and sleeping on her couch; it happens, but with you being all…all…government conspiracy…”

“Just open the door already,” Alex said.

“And you’re not going to tell me what this is about?” Jess asked again.

Pointing at the door, Alex said, “It’s about a GPS signal that led me here.  That and your boss could be in danger; that’s all you need to know.  Now open it.”

“Fine, but you don’t move one inch into that room unless I say so.”

Jess typed her security code into the panel on the side of the door, using her handprint and retinal code to release the override.   Then she used her keys to open the manual lock.  Pushing the door open, she and Agent Danvers stared at the scene inside.

There were three empty pizza boxes and an empty soda bottle on the floor near Lena’s coffee table.  Rolled up schematic sheets sat on the table.  A pair of tall red boots stood by the end of the low-armed ivory couch where a long piece of red fabric hung.  Jess stepped into the room, having completely forgotten the agent with whom she was so concerned a moment earlier, to get an even better view of who lay on the couch.  Toward the back was a blonde, the blue sleeve, and top of her uniform showing from where her arm was over the red blanket and around the other occupant.  Miss Luthor slept with her back snuggled into the hero, her arm over Supergirl’s and one woman’s hand wrapped into the other woman’s.

“I…” Jess looked over at Agent Danvers to see her shock mirrored on the FBI agent’s face.  Walking over to the door, she shook her head.

Alex took Jess by the arm and pulled her out of the room and closing the door said, “Lock the door.  Do whatever you need to do with security to lock them in again and just…just…you didn’t see anything.”

“Oh, I saw something.”

“Nothing, you saw nothing,” Alex repeated.  “I’ll take care of…that.  You’ll go home and forget you ever saw that or I’ll wrap you in enough red tape and surround you with enough paperwork to give you a lifetime of carpal tunnel.  Do you hear me?”

“You’re threatening me with bureaucracy?  Do you forget who I work for?  I tell Miss Luthor the feds are threatening me, and she’ll see that as an excuse to loose an army of lawyers on you.”

“Ugh.”  Alex wiped both her hands across her face, trying to wipe away some of her frustration.  Dropping her hands, she asked, “What is it going to take?”

“You dragged me out of my bed at 6:00 AM on a Saturday,” Jess replied.  “At this point, all I really want is a coffee and a Danish.”

“Really?”

“You think I’d do anything to hurt Miss Luthor?” Jess shook her head then turned and locked the door.  “She’s the best employer I’ve ever had and the best person I’ve ever met.  I’d never do anything to betray her.”  She put her hand on the hand pad, leaning forward to let her retinas get scanned before typing in the code to lock the door again.  “Next time she tells me she’s doing research and development though…” Jess smirked.  “Well, I guess I don’t need to buy those cats.”

“Cats?”

Jess’s smile grew.  “Never mind.  Let’s just get that coffee.”  She yawned.  “I don’t know about you government types, but this is way too early for me to be getting up on a weekend.”

Following Jess to the elevator, Alex said, “Actually, I haven’t been to bed yet, Miss…uh, Miss…”

Pressing the down button, Jess said, “Please, call me Jess.  After seeing whatever that was, I feel like we’re on a first name basis…?” She held out her hand, leaning forward.

With a small smile, the agent replied, “It’s Alex.  Yeah, I’m not sure what that was.  Right now, I don’t want to think about that.  I’m going to need some coffee, then lots of sleep, then, even more alcohol before I can even consider thinking about that.  That was…disturbing.”

The elevator dinged, doors opening and Jess and Alex stepped in.

As she pressed the button for the ground floor, a smile lit across Jess’ lips.  “Speak for yourself.  It will be a long time before I can look at my employer without thinking about that.  Go, Miss Luthor.  A Luthor and a Super huh?  Well, all right.”

Alex’s head turned to her right as she stared open-mouthed at the secretary, the door closing and sweeping them both away on that thought.

Inside the office, Supergirl stirred.  Her waking mind thought she heard familiar voices, but she opened her eyes and was momentarily confused.  It took several seconds, a few of them of panic, before the early morning’s events fully came back to her.  Looking down at the woman curled into her, Supergirl froze then smiled slightly.  She extracted her hand, gently pushing hair away from Lena’s face and admiring the beauty of the sleeping woman.  After a few moments, the hero carefully extracted herself from the couch.  She put on her cape and boots, careful not to crush her cellphone as she did so.

Deciding to clean up before she skipped out, Supergirl took their mugs to the sink and dumped out the remains of Lena’s coffee.  She didn’t rinse them worrying the noise would wake the sleeping CEO.  She crushed the soda bottle and put the remains in the trash can, then ripped up the pizza boxes to do the same.  On her way past the coffee table again, she noticed she had bumped into the tubes of paper.  The tube had titled knocking out the middle piece.  It seemed to be clear, like a tracing paper, but what really got her attention was that the symbol of the House of El appeared on it where it unfurled.  Examining it, she saw it looked like some kind of mock up uniform.  Taking out the rest of the schematic paper, Supergirl unfurled it.  It looked like a suit made out of material Lena had shown her last night, the material Lena had said she was going to use in the automotive industry, the material which absorbed and redirected force.  Laying it out flat, Supergirl lay the suit with the House of El symbol on top of it, seeing what she had expected…form meeting function.

Supergirl looked up at the TV where just hours before Lena had watched her getting beaten by several aliens.  She looked down at the schematics of a Supergirl suit which would absorb damage and protect the wearer.  Then she looked back at Lena who had planned to spend her weekend, planned to stay up all day and night, so that she could get a set of schematics to the R&D department by Monday morning so they could work on a prototype.  Eyes closed, she let out a heavy sigh.

“Oh, Lena,” Supergirl said, “Money is your business, and your business is money?” Shaking her head, Supergirl furled the papers inside each other once again and put them back on the table.  She crouched down in front of Lena, pressing a gentle kiss to the woman's forehead.  “I see you.  Other people may not, but I see you, and I appreciate you.  Maybe I need to show you.”  Supergirl walked to the balcony door, opening it but looking back over her shoulder and saying, “Maybe I need to show you before you slip away.” Closing the door behind her, Supergirl launched herself into the morning sky.  Her heart felt lighter than it had just hours before, lighter and yet fuller at the same time, and that was a feeling worth exploring.

 

 


End file.
